


Playing Doctor

by SlowBurnJane



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: AgentCorp, F/F, Kelly is not in the picture, Lena is still mad but trying to get over it, Takes place after Crisis, The fond exasperation though, slight AU, working through issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-13
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:07:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23130682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SlowBurnJane/pseuds/SlowBurnJane
Summary: “I always imagined that playing doctor would be more sexy and less painful.”
Relationships: Alex Danvers/Lena Luthor
Comments: 31
Kudos: 318





	1. Stitches

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Redlance](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Redlance/gifts).



> Happy Birthday, Jenny! I apologize in advance for this utter nonsense but I wanted to give you a bit of AgentCorp, as a treat. ;)

“Ow!”

“Stop moving or it’ll just hurt more and take longer.”

Alex tried looking over her shoulder but gave up at the flare of pain. “Do you even know what you’re doing?” She heard a scoff behind her.

“I have five degrees and two of them are doctorates, I’ve assembled robotics from scratch, I’m sure I can manage suturing.”

“I’m not components to solder together, Lena. I’m a human being,” Alex reminded her. She felt a sharp tug in return. “Ow, Jesus!”

Lena pushed Alex forward to get a better angle on the task at hand. “You’re such a baby. I’m halfway done.”

“I could have just done this myself,” Alex grumbled, and gripped the edge of the bathroom sink a little tighter. ”You’re probably spacing them too far apart. I’m going to look like a fucking football.”

Lena raised her head to look at Alex in the mirror, indignant, “How would that...never mind, I don’t follow sports and I don’t care.” She went back to suturing. “They aren’t spaced too far apart, I’m not an idiot. I’ve seen people do this before and I have an eidetic memory. Also, you can’t suture your own back, no matter how good of a doctor you think you are. This isn’t some dire situation where you’re out in the field and you’re going to bleed out unless you patch yourself up.”

“Uh, I beg to differ because if  _ anyone _ outside of this room finds out this happened I’m probably going to die of embarrassment, so, yeah, dire.”

Lena smirked as she looped the thread, “You think your sister won’t immediately tell you’re injured the next time you see her?”

Alex sighed and her posture slumped further forward. “She will but I’ll tell her it was a training accident.”

“You Danvers sisters really like your lies.”

“Lena…”

“What? I couldn’t help myself,” Lena said, her tone defensive. After a moment she looked up and met Alex’s eyes in the mirror. “I’m sorry, I’m still working on getting over it.”

“I know. I’m sorry,” Alex said and cringed at the words. “God, we’re all going to ‘sorry’ each other to death before we’re all past this. But I  _ am _ sorry for not trusting you, and I’m sorry for not letting Kara tell you her identity once I did trust you... _ Ow _ !”

“Oops, sorry.”

“Goddamn it, Lena,” Alex muttered before relenting. “Fine, I guess I deserved that.”

Lena worked in silence for a few minutes. The sound of Alex sucking in air through her gritted teeth as the thread past through her skin the only sound.

“This is weird, us talking again,” Lena admitted.

Alex barked a laugh and then winced at the movement. “Is that what we’re doing?” 

Lena rolled her eyes and pushed at Alex’s shoulder. “You know what I mean.”

“Well, I’m a trained tactician and I never had even an inkling of this happening, like, ever, so yeah. Weird.”

Lena reached up to pull Alex’s bare shoulder back toward her slightly until she was satisfied with the new placement. “My focus was admittedly on...other things until recently, but I too did not foresee this happening.”

“Ugh, please don’t remind me that you had feelings for Kara while we’re standing here naked in your bathroom. That makes me feel like such a creep and also a little scared for my life because I’m about eighty percent sure she had feelings for you too.”

Lena shook her head repeatedly and took a half step back from Alex. “No. Nope. We’re not talking about this. The ship sailed on that possibility when I found out she lied to me for over three years.”

“You protest an awful lot for someone dead set against it,” Alex pointed out as she watched Lena work her jaw in anger. 

“I will rip these sutures out and let you walk to the DEO to explain how you got injured if you-”

“Okay, okay! I’m sorry,” Alex ceded, her hands flying up to show she would stop. “Really, I am. I’m just working on my own guilt over this.”

“Well,  _ this _ isn’t a whole lot at this point so I wouldn’t worry about it,” Lena snapped and moved to resume her suturing.

Alex gawped at Lena’s reflection in the mirror. “You’re literally stitching up my back because we fucked so hard against your vanity that the mirror shattered.”

She watched in the mirror as Lena shrugged.

“Yeah, so? We’re consenting adults and allowed to work off a little stress. It doesn’t have to mean anything.”

“I know. I just…and don’t roll your eyes… I don’t like keeping things from my sister.”

Lena paused her ministrations and fixed her with a hard look.

“That’s completely your problem, Alex. You should have thought about that before making a move.”

“God knows what I was thinking,” Alex muttered. She braced for a tug of the suture thread in retaliation but none came.

“I have to say I don’t remember you ever looking like you were interested,” Lena said after a while.

Alex looked down at the counter and thought for a moment.

“I don’t think I ever was,” she finally answered, “You annoyed me for a really long time. Probably because we’re alike in many ways. Also, I thought you and Kara were going to get together so I think I had subconsciously shut down the possibility of anything happening between us years ago.”

Lena tied off the suture thread and looked over her work. “I saw Kelly took a promotion at Obsidian’s Metropolis office…I assume this is an attempt to take the edge off your loneliness?” she asked.

“Deep down somewhere? Probably,” Alex admitted. It had been a tough couple of months.

“Did it work?”

“Maybe. Did it take the edge off yours?”

Lena caught her eye in the mirror before resuming her inspection of the smaller cuts on Alex’s back. “It was getting there until we had to stop to play doctor.”

Alex nearly sighed in relief at Lena’s playful tone. They might weather this storm yet. 

“I always imagined that playing doctor would be more sexy and less painful.”

Lena hummed as she applied a steri-strip to a smaller cut near the back of Alex’s neck. “Definitely less broken glass involved at any rate.”

“Are you done? Let me see your work,” Alex asked, turning toward the mirror and immediately hissing at the pull of the sutures at the movement. In the mirror she could see nearly two dozen neatly placed sutures across her shoulder blade. “You did a pretty good job. I’m actually impressed.”

Lena rolled her eyes as she washed her hands. “I told you I could do it.”

“You did,” Alex agreed, nodding. Her mouth quirked playfully as she handed Lena a hand towel, “So… I know it’s usually the patient that gets a reward if they’re good, but in this case, since you did so well ‘Doctor’... could I interest you in a reward? Preferably in the shower so I can rinse the blood off and make sure there aren’t shards of glass in my hair?”

Lena dropped the hand towel next to the medic bag on the counter. “I think I’d be amenable to that.”

“But then I do need to get back to work,” Alex said, more to herself than to Lena. “Oh, and you need to sign that paperwork I brought over.”

“I told you I’m not signing it until my lawyers review it. Remember, the entire reason we got into an argument in the first place before you kissed me?”

“Ugh, fine!” Alex snapped, rolling her eyes. “And quit bringing up the fact that I made a move first. It’s weird.”

Lena raised an immaculately shaped brow. “What, you don’t like being reminded that you came on to me?” 

“Well, we all know  _ you _ don’t make the first move when you want something.” Alex tossed back and then internally kicked herself. She had promised to stop bringing it up.

Lena glared at her for a long moment and then, like a switch was flipped, she shook off the expression. 

“I’m going to ignore the fact that you’re hitting way below the belt right now because I really want another orgasm before I kick you out, but remember this - if I had made a move on your sister at any point in the past, there’d be no way I’d be fucking you today. So, do with that what you will.” Lena leaned into the shower to turn on the water. “Now, shall we take a shower?”

Alex waved her hand forward in an ‘after you’ motion before stepping in behind Lena. “Do you foresee this being a one-time thing, or do you think there might be other...opportunities?”

Lena turned to let Alex ease herself under the water spray, watching as she winced at the water hitting her back. “I don’t know. Might be too dangerous to risk additional encounters.”

Alex slicked her wet hair back with her fingers and moved aside to let Lena under the spray. “Why, because of the risk someone could find out?”

Lena brushed her hand across Alex’s hip as she slid by her. “No, like literally dangerous. This time one of us needed to be stitched up. Next time one of us might lose a limb.”

Alex rolled her eyes. “Oh, ha ha.” She spotted the shampoo on the shelf and passed it to Lena. “We’re used to risky situations, aren’t we?”

Lena pretended to think about it as she lathered her hair. “I suppose it’s no more dangerous than our current day-to-day life, though I’m not going to make a decision on this based on the single orgasm you’ve given me so far. My scientific mind requires multiple data points as I’m sure you can understand.”

Lena rinsed her hair and they slid around each other again, hands drifting against bare skin. Alex quickly scrubbed her hair one handed, hissing when the soap ran over the cuts on her back.

“I never thought I’d apply the scientific method to sex but strangely it seems fitting all things considered. Personally, the fact that I barely noticed I was being fucked into a shattered mirror tells me I’m probably good making a decision on this with only the one data point.”

Lena smirked, her eyes raking over Alex. “Well, I’ve always been an overachiever.”

Alex shifted close to Lena, her fingers trailing over her ribs. She could feel the faint hitch in Lena’s breath as she leaned in.

“Let’s see if I can even up the score then,” she said, her voice throaty and low.

Lena tilted her head up, her hands finding purchase on top of Alex’s shoulders. “You did mention something about a reward,” she murmured, closing the distance between them.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	2. The Flu

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex gets a turn to play doctor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I sat down to finish a WIP in another fandom and this happened instead.

**_Alex 2:21 pm:_ ** _I saw you at the press_ _conference.You looked a little rough._

**_Lena 2:28 pm:_ ** _Excuse me?_

**_Alex 2:28 pm:_ ** _Lena…_

**_Lena 2:44 pm:_ ** _Your hook-up pitch needs_ _work if that’s what you’re going for._

**_Alex 2:51 pm:_ ** _TBH I was thinking about asking but from what I saw earlier, you’re not up to it._

**_Lena 2:54 pm:_ ** _I’m fine. I’m just a bit tired._

**_Alex 2:55 pm:_ ** _You sure?_

**_Lena 4:08 pm:_ ** _I’ll be home by 7._

**_Alex 4:12 pm:_ ** _Wow, 7? That’s pretty early for you. Are you sure you’re alright?_

**_Lena 4:14 pm:_ ** _You know, on second thought..._

**_Alex 4:15 pm:_ ** _Okay, okay. I’ll be there at 7:30._

  
-

Alex entered the lobby of Lena’s building at a fast clip, eager to get out of the view of anyone that could possibly recognize her. It was one thing to visit Lena Luthor under the guise of the DEO and another to be there as off-duty Alex Danvers.

She had made a handful of visits to Lena’s penthouse in the past two months and she thanked whatever entity out there that the merging of the Earths had gotten rid of the paparazzi that had been a regular fixture outside of Lena’s building on Earth-38.

The man at the security desk gave her leather jacket and paper grocery bag a long look before nodding. He typed something into the terminal in front of him as she walked by and the penthouse elevator opened for her. Alex wondered, not for the first time, if Lena had put her name on the list of people who could go up without stopping for a security check, or if it were on a per visit basis. She wasn’t entirely sure she wanted to know the answer to that. 

Some weeks it was still touch and go when it came to their...relationship, if that’s even what it could be called. They weren’t exactly friends who did brunch or drinks at a bar. Or anything in public really. If she was honest, their current status hovered a notch or two above ‘booty call’ and that was about as far as Alex could handle thinking about it most days. 

The elevator ride was swift and before she knew it she was knocking on Lena’s door. Almost a minute went by and if security hadn’t cleared her to go up Alex would have thought that perhaps she had arrived before Lena. She was preparing to knock a second time when the door cracked open. 

Lena stood on the other side of the doorway looking unlike any version of the normally put together business woman Alex had ever seen. Her hair had been released from the tight ponytail it had been in earlier in the day. The fluffiest sweater Alex had ever seen was wrapped around the CEO’s thin frame, falling to nearly mid-thigh. Trailing her gaze back up to Lena’s face, she wasn’t surprised to see the look of annoyance and resignation behind thick framed glasses.

“Shut up.” Lena muttered, looking away. 

Alex grinned.

“Are you going to let me in?” 

Lena stepped back, opening the door wider so that Alex could enter. She ran her hand up under her glasses to rub one of her eyes tiredly. “I wasn’t feeling this bad earlier. I took something for the headache a few hours ago but it hasn’t subsided at all,” she said, shutting the door. 

Alex set the grocery bag on the island in the kitchen and shrugged her jacket off to hang over the back of one of the chairs. “Go sit down,” she said, gesturing to the couch, “You look like you’re going to fall over.” 

It spoke volumes about how the CEO must be feeling when Lena tottered to the couch with no argument, dropping down onto the plush cushions that were there more for aesthetic than comfort. Alex, along with the rest of the world, knew well: Lena Luthor did not do anything she didn’t want to do. 

Alex started unpacking the grocery bag - she had picked up Vietnamese chicken soup, over the counter cold & flu medicine, and a couple bottles of Gatorade knowing full well that Lena wouldn’t have bothered to stop on her way home from work to pick anything up. Oftentimes, the CEO’s generosity and empathy towards others did not extend to herself and her own wellbeing.

“What are your symptoms?” Alex asked.

Lena had curled her legs up under herself on the couch, her sweater clad arms wrapped tightly around her torso. Her voice was as weary as her wan expression. 

“Aside from the splitting headache and body aches, I’m freezing so chances are good that I have a bit of a fever but I haven’t actually checked. Honestly, I was just hoping to sleep it off. I’m sure I’ll be fine in the morning.”

Alex shot Lena an amused look. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure you have the flu, Lena. I don’t think you’re going to be in any condition to leave bed tomorrow.”

Lena tipped her head back to rest on the back of the couch and huffed, which then ended up causing a sudden coughing fit. “Ugh. I don’t have time to be sick.” she wheezed in complaint.

Alex removed the lid from the soup and carefully transferred the contents to a large bowl. She set it on the counter in front of one of the stools. “I picked up Pho Ga. I figured chicken soup was a safe bet. Do you want me to bring it to you or do you want to come eat it here at the counter?” she asked, watching for Lena’s reaction. 

Doing things for Lena generally went two ways - wounded animal lashing out or genuine surprise and bewilderment at the action.

Alex hoped it was going to be the latter, though she knew Lena was still going out of her way to avoid classifying their interactions as anything remotely related to dating. Or even friendship for that matter. To be honest, Alex didn’t mind at all. Well, not much anyway.

Things were just too weird between them along with the new normal on Earth Prime to even begin hashing out where any of this was going.

Either Lena wasn’t in the mood for putting up a fight or she really was as sick as she looked because she hauled herself up from the couch to join Alex at the counter. Settling on the stool she pushed up a sleeve and looked picked up the chopsticks Alex had set beside her bowl.

“Thank you for this. It’s perfect.” she said, looking up at Alex to offer a small but genuine smile.

Alex nodded in acknowledgement, offering a smile of her own. She fished a spoon out of a nearby drawer, sliding it over for Lena to use along with the chopsticks, waiting until she had taken her first spoonful before preparing her own bowl. 

They ate in comfortable silence, Alex watching as Lena’s energy slowly drained. Her chopsticks wobbled after a few mouthfuls, the effort of lifting the noodles out of the broth seemingly too much. Alex watched her set the chopsticks down and pick up the spoon instead. It was clear Lena wasn’t going to last long in an upright position. 

“Okay, I think someone needs to be horizontal.” Alex said once Lena had managed a few spoonfuls of broth. She moved the bowl and utensils away from where Lena had slumped against the countertop, head propped up with her arm. Lena attempted a menacing side-eye but Alex saw her wince after a moment.

“Like I said earlier, your pick-up game needs work,” Lena mumbled, watching Alex pack up the soup to store in the refrigerator. There was still plenty to heat up later on if Lena felt up to eating after she rested.

Alex rolled her eyes and spoke mostly to the countertop as she tidied up. “You know, you could acknowledge that someone actually cares about you enough to check up on you and put up with your cranky ass,” she said.

Lena looked at Alex and heaved a lengthy sigh that ended in a brief coughing fit. “I know, I’m sorry. I don’t mean to take it out on you. I’m just so frustrated. I cannot afford to be waylaid by illness, I have too many important projects in critical stages right now. You know what would happen if _some_ ,” she paused, giving Alex a meaningful look, “of those projects fall behind.” 

The plan to remove Lex from the multitude of powerful positions he had crafted for himself in this new world had so many layers and moving parts, Alex knew right away what Lena meant and understood her frustration. If they didn’t stay ten steps ahead of him and his wide-reaching network it would all be for nothing. A second chance would be almost impossible. Unfortunately, that didn’t change the fact that one of the most important players in this plan was a shivering, achy mess right now.

Rounding the counter island, Alex sighed as she gently slipped an arm around Lena, coaxing her out of her seat. She led Lena toward the bedroom.

“Logically, you know the sooner you rest, the sooner you’ll feel better. I know it feels like the completely wrong time to get sick. It’s always the wrong time to get sick when you’re a busy person doing important things, but you need to suck it up and face the fact that you need to let yourself rest.”

“Fine, I’ll lie down for a while,” Lena said, leaning into Alex’s side as they made their way to the side of her bed. She made a feeble attempt at pulling back the covers before Alex reached around and did it for her.

“You get comfortable and I’ll go get the meds I brought,” Alex said, leaving the room to retrieve the cold and flu medication and one of the bottles of Gatorade from the grocery bag in the kitchen. She hoped Lena liked whatever ‘Glacier Freeze’ tasted like because it was one of the few flavors that didn’t look like it would glow in the dark in a chemical plant.

She returned to find Lena sitting on the edge of the bed shivering and frowned.

“Why are you not in bed?” 

Lena sighed, leaning heavily on her arms behind her. “I’m not going to lie down and get comfortable just to have to sit up again to take medication, Alex. You want me to rest, so I’m going to rest.”

Alex rolled her eyes and handed Lena the tablets so she could open the Gatorade for her. “You’re the biggest pain in the ass, I swear,” she grumbled, handing the bottle over to a smirking Lena. For a moment she looked like her usual self before tossing back the tablets with a swig of the beverage.

Once the medication was down, Lena dutifully climbed into bed, pulling the covers up to her chin. Alex watched her for a moment and could see her continue to shiver.

“Do you have a thermometer here? I think we should check your temperature before you fall asleep.”

“In the medic bag. You know where it is,” Lena mumbled, her eyelids drooping but the smirk was back for a moment and Alex scoffed as she left the room to retrieve the medic bag. Yes, she did know where the medic bag was. It had saved her from some serious embarrassment a couple months prior.

Alex retrieved the bag from the linen closet in the bathroom and set it on the bathroom counter so she could rifle through it. Locating the thermometer, she gave it a quick wash in the sink before returning to Lena’s bedroom.

“You know, for a tech genius, I expected you to at least have an infrared thermometer, not this old school oral thermometer,” Alex said, lowering herself to sit on the edge of the bed beside Lena. She offered the thermometer to Lena so she could put it in her mouth. “You know they sell them at pharmacies and grocery stores now.”

Lena fixed Alex with a deadpan expression as she took the thermometer from her hand and placed it under her tongue in her mouth. They waited until the device beeped to announce the temperature could be read. Lena pulled out of her mouth to look at the temperature before handing it to Alex. 

“101.3. Hopefully the meds and some rest help bring it down,” Alex said.

Lena looked at Alex, considering. “You might get sick if you hang around,” she said.

Alex shrugged. “Eh, I got my flu shot months ago. If I get it, it probably won’t be that bad.”

Lena shifted under the covers to find a more comfortable position. “I didn’t think to get one. Not since the-“ she gestured vaguely toward the window “world melding happened. I’ve been too preoccupied with the...state of affairs,” she said coughing. Alex scoffed.

“Obviously your secretary on this Earth isn’t as on top of things as your old one was.”

Lena sighed, her eyelids heavier with each blink. The exhaustion of the day and the effects of the medication were beginning to take hold. “I miss Jess. God, so much has happened since then, I barely recall why she left,” she half mumbled into the edge of the comforter she had pulled up to her chin. 

Alex shrugged. She watched Lena’s eyelids finally close.

“I didn’t know her all that well but I’d guess the constant risk of injury or death on the job had something to do with it,” she said.

Lena only made a small sound of concession, teetering on the edge of consciousness. 

Alex watched her for a moment. She could feel the slight tremors from Lena shivering through the comforter and she debated what to do next.

She could easily leave now that Lena was resting. Lena had more medicine and the Gatorade close by on the bedside table and soup in the fridge. She had the bases covered. Her fever wasn’t at a worrisome level so there was really no reason for her to stick around. They weren’t dating. They weren’t anything really, except for the times one of them texted the other looking for some stress relief. Lena would probably sleep for at least a few hours now anyway.

Alex knew at some point she would need to examine the part of her that wanted to be here when Lena woke up. She could tell herself it was in case Lena’s fever got worse, or that she didn’t want Lena to be lonely when she felt so terrible, but at some point it would need to be addressed before things became complicated.

Biting back a sigh, Alex stood up and walked around the bed to the other side. She sat down and unlaced her boots, pulling her phone out of her back pocket so she could crawl under the covers to the middle of the bed.

Lena cracked a weary eye open at the movement on the mattress and watched Alex prop herself up against the headboard with a pillow. Alex looked over at her and raised her hand with her phone in it.

“I’ll catch up on some reading while you sleep,” she said.

Lena closed her eyes once more but Alex could see the corner of her mouth quirk up in a small smile. 

Almost immediately the covers shifted as Lena turned toward Alex and her body heat, nestling her head in Alex’s lap. Lena’s arm slid across the top of Alex’s thighs, the slight tremble still present from the fever.

Alex adjusted her arm so she could stroke Lena’s hair, sweeping the strands away from her face and neck. Lena hummed and pulled the covers up around her chin once more.

“I guess your pick-up game isn’t all that bad,” Lena said quietly.

“No?” Alex asked, smirking.

“No,” Lena murmured, drifting off once again, “You got me in bed after all.”


End file.
